Buttonhole sewing-machine



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. E. DRAKE.

BUTTONHOLE SEWING MACHINE. No. 540,302. Patented June 4, 189 5.

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ELLIS'DRAKE, ,OF STOUGHTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

BUTTONHOLE SEWING-MACHINE.

F SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 540,302, dated June 4, 1895. A plication filed December 3, 1891- Serial No- 41 (N mo -l T0 whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELLIS DRAKE, of Sloughton, in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Buttonhole Sewing- Machines; and I do hereby declare the following specification, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same, to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

In an application of even date herewith, Serial No. 41 3,881, I have described certain improvements in that class of sewing machines for stitching buttonholes, in which the stitching mechanism is made to travel first along one side of the buttonhole slit, then around the eye of the buttonhole, and then along the other side of the slit, said stitching mechanism being mounted upon a travelingframework, and the needle bar having, in addition to its regular reciprocations vertically, an intermittent rotary movement at each end of the buttonhole slit, said improvements being designed to lessen the number of hand manipulations on the part of the operator in the operation of stitching a buttonhole, and consisting among other things in an improved construction and arrangement of the needle bar thread guides and in the combination with the other parts of the machine of asurplus thread gathering device. In the arrangement shown and described in said application the holes in the upper end of the needle bar formerly employed for the passage of the thread were dispensed with, and in place thereof an independent thread guide was attached to the needle bar, said thread guide being arranged with its thread eye a short distance above the top, and substantially in line with the axis, of the needle bar, and to the bracket arm of the traveling frame-work was attached a device termed a surplus thread gatherer, which, in combination with the needle bar and the mechanism for intermittently rotating the same, served to gather step by step, at each movement of the needle bar in its rotation around the eye of the buttonhole, a certain amount of surplus thread between the tension and the needle, said surplus thread gatherer being fixed in position, and the surplus thread being gathered by the movement of the thread guides, which project at right angles from the needle bar, to increase the distan ce between the eyes of said thread guides and the fixed eyes in the surplus thread gatherer during the oscillation of the needle bar.

The object of the present invention is to simplify and improve the above arrangement and to produce the desired results with a less number of parts and by a somewhat different mode of operation.

To that end the present invention consists in the combination, with the needle bar and the mechanism for rotating the same, of a surplus thread gatherer so connected, either with the needle bar or with the mechanism which rotates said needle bar, that said thread gatherer will be given a step by step movement coincident with the movement of the needle bar-in its rotation around the eye of the buttonhole, as distinguished from being fixed in position. By the present improvement said thread gatherer may also, if desired, be made to serve the purpose, and to take the place, of the independent thread guide arranged above the top of the needle bar in the arrangement above referred to.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a top view, and Fig. 2 a side elevation, of aportion of the bracketarm of a buttonhole-stitching machine of the character referred to, showing so much of the sameias is necessary for an understanding of the present invention, the needle-bar, with its attachments, being represented in the position which it occupies before the commencement of its rotation around the eye of the buttonhole. Figs. 3 and 4 are a top view and side elevation, respectively, of the same, showing the needlebar and its attachments in the position occupied at the conclusion of its rotation around the eye of the buttonhole. Figs. 5 and 6 are a top view and aside elevation, respectively, representing a modified arrangement, showing the thread-gatherer arranged to be operated from the sector which rotates the needlebar instead of being attached directly to the needle-bar itself, the parts being shown in the position which they occupy before the commencement of the rotation of the needle-bar around the eye of the needle. Fig. 7 is a top View of the same, showing the parts in the position which they occupy at the conclusion of the rotation of the needle-bar; and Figs. 8

and 9 are a top view and a side elevation, respectively, upon an enlarged scale, of the form of thread gatherer to be attached directly to the needle-bar.

The present invention is adapted to be applied to a machine of the character shown and described in Letters Patent of the United States granted to John Reece, No. 240,546, dated April 26, 1881, and No. 349,359, dated September 21, 1886, and as the present invention relates only to the combination, with the needle bar and the mechanism which operates it, of a thread gathering device so arranged and combined as to be operated either by said needle bar or by said operating mechanism, it will not be necessary to show or describe in detail the machine as-a, whole, or all the operating parts, for a full description of which reference is hereby made to said Reece patents.

Referring to the drawings, A represents a portion of the bracket arm of a buttonhole stitching machine of that class in which the stitching mechanism is mounted upon a traveling framework and in which the needle bar has an intermittent rotary movement at each end of the buttonhole, whereby the stitching mechanism is made to travel first along one side of the buttonhole slit, then around the eye of the buttonhole, and then along the other side of the slit. The needle bar a is mounted in this bracket arm in the usual manner, and has combined with it the usual mechanism for reciprocating said needle bar vertically, all as described in said Reece patents. Mounted in the bracketarm A is a pinion Z) arranged to turn freely in said bracket, and meshing with this. pinion b is a sector 0 arranged to be operated by suitable mechanism, so as to oscillate the pinion I) as described in said Reece patents. The needle bar a is connected with the pinion b by a groove and spline connection, and so that while the. needle bar will be free to reciprocate Vertically in said pinion, said needle bar will be made to partake of the movements. imparted to the pinion b. The needle bar is provided with two thread guides d, d projecting at right angles from the needle bar, one near the top and one near the bottom thereof as usual.

6 represents a surplus thread gatherer adapted to be attached directly to the needle bar in the position shown in Figs. 2 and 4. This thread gatherer, which is represented upon an enlarged scale at Figs. 8 and 9, may be formed from a piece of wire bent substantially into the shape shown in the drawings, and is provided at one end with an eye c for the passage of the thread. For securing the thread gatherer to the needle bar the former may be provided at its other end with a screw thread e adapted to engage a correspondingly tapped hole in the needle bar. The shape of the thread gatherer c and its arrangement with relation to the needle bar are such that the eye 6 will stand at an offset from the needle bar, as shown in the drawings. The thread fas it comes from the tension device 9 and the take-up h is led through the eye e of the thread gatherer e, thence to the eye of the upper thread guide d, and thence parallel with the end of the bracket arm to the eye in the lower thread guide 01, thence to the usual retention spring, not shown in the drawings, at the lower end of the needle bar, and thence to the eye of the needle.

It will be seen upon reference to Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings, that when the needle bar and its attachments are in the position there shown, that is, in the position'which they occupy before the needle bar commences its rotating movement around the eye of the buttonhole, the eye e in the thread gatherer e is at its nearest point to the tension device. As the needle bar is rotated, by means of the pinion b, the sector 0 and its operating mechanism, at the proper time, step by step around the eye of the buttonhole, the eye 6' of the thread gatherer will be moved in the arc of a circle, and will be carried, at each movement of the needle bar in the formation of the successive stitches, step by step farther away from the tension device, until, when the needle bar has completed its rotation around the eye of the buttonhole, the eye 6' of the thread gatherer will be finally brought to the position shown in Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings, that is, to a point farthest away from the tension device. This step by step movement of the eye of the thread gatherer away from the tension device will serve to cause a little extra thread to be pulled through the tension at each step in the movement of the thread gatherer, with the result that when the thread gatherer has reached the position shown in Figs. 3 and 4, a total amount of extra or surplus thread will have been pulled through the tension equal in length to the diameter of the circle in which the eye of the thread gatherer moves in its rotation with the needle bar. The exact amount of surplus thread to be gathered may be readily determined and regulated by simply turning the thread gatherer with relation to the needle bar so as to vary the distance between the eye of said thread gatherer and the axis of the needle bar, and consequently varying the diameter of the circle in which the eye of the thread gatherer moves in its rotation with the needle bar.

If desired, the surplus thread gatherer may be attached to and operated by some portion of the mechanism which serves to rotate the needle bar, as for instance to the sector which engages the pinion upon the needle bar, instead of being attached directly to the needle bar itself. Such a combination and arrangement of thread gatherer is represented at Figs. 5, 6 and 7 of. the drawings, in which the thread gathering device c-is made of aproper shape and size to enable it to be attached to the sector 0, by means of a bracket 2' secured to one leg of the sector as shown, said bracket being provided with a hole for receiving the end of the thread gatherer, which may be made adjustable in the bracket, and held in any adjusted position by means of a set-screw j. With this arrangement of the thread gatherer I prefer to employ an independent needle bar thread guide 70, with its eye It arranged above, and substantially in line with the axis of, the needle bar, as shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, for the passage of the thread from the eye a of the thread gatherer to the eye in the thread guide 01, but, if desired, the needle bar may instead be provided with vertical and transverse holes in its upper end for the passage of the thread as heretofore. As the sec tore is moved from the position shown in Fig. 5 to the position shown in Fig. '7 during the rotation of the needle bar, the thread gatherer 6 will be carried with it by a step by step movement, coincident with the movement of the needle bar in its rotation around the eye of the buttonhole, which will result in pulling at each step a little extra thr'ead through the tension device, until when the thread gatherer has reached the position shown in Fig.7, a

certain amount of surplus thread will, as before, have been gradually accumulated between the tension device and the needle. The amount of surplus thread to be gathered may be readily determined and regulated by adjusting the thread gatherer so that its eye will stand at a greater or less distance from the axis of rotation of the sector a, and so that the eye of the thread gatherer in its movement with the sector will move in the arc of a circle of greater or less radius, as may be desired.

In both of the arrangements above described, as will be seen, the amount of surplus thread is not gathered all at once, but gradually step by step at the formation of each successive stitch, with the result that the pull upon the thread in gathering such surplus is a uniform pull, and such as not to materially affect the tension on the thread.

By the combination and arrangement of parts above described, the requisite amount of surplus threadbetween the tension and the needle to prevent the loose end of thread from pulling out of the eye of the needle at the commencement of the next buttonhole in"series will be automatically gathered during the formation of the next preceding buttonhole, thereby avoiding the hand manipulations heretofore required. The combination and arrangement are, moreover, exceedingly simple, but one new part being required, to wit, the thread gatherer, which maybe readily attached to any machine of the general character referred to. Furthermore, it will be seen that with the arrangement of parts first above described the thread gatherer also serves the purpose of a needle bar thread guide, whereby the vertical and transverse holes in the upper end of the needle bar heretofore employed for the passage of the thread may be entirely dispensed with, and the sharp angles and short bights of the thread incident thereto avoided.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination, with the-needle bar of a buttonhole stitching machine and the mechanism for rotating the same, of a thread gathering device having its eye arranged between the needle bar and the tension, and means for imparting a step by step movement to said thread gatherer to draw an extra or surplus amount of thread through the tension as the needle bar is rotated around the eye of the buttonhole, substantially as described.

2. The combination, with the needle bar of a buttonhole stitching machine and the mechanism for rotating the same, of athread gathering device operated intermittently by said mechanism, and having its eye arranged between the needle bar and the tension, whereby as the needle bar is rotated said thread gathering device will have imparted to it a step by step movement coincident with the movements of the needle bar in its rotation around the eye of the buttonhole, thereby drawing a certain amount of extra or surplus thread through the tension device at each step of its movement, substantially as described.

3. The combination, with the needle bar of a buttonhole stitching machine and the mechanism for rotating the same, of a thread gathering device secured to the needle bar, with its thread eye arranged between the needle bar and the tension, and at an offset from the axis of said needle bar, whereby as said needle bar is rotated step by step around the eye of the buttonhole, said thread gathering device will be caused to travel in the arc of a circle away from the tension device, and thereby accumulate step by step a certain amount of extra or surplus thread between the tension device and the needle, substantially as described.

ELLIS DRAKE.

Witnesses:

N. E. HANSON, J. W. GRANT. 

